Vaginal or anal probes which are used to sense or measure a subject's body characteristics to provide an indication of a particular body condition are known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,238 to Sundhar, which issued May 11, 1993 discloses one prior art vaginal probe and is incorporated herein by reference. The probe of Sundhar consists of a cylindrically shaped housing which has positioned therealong a number of longitudinally spaced sensors. In its operation, the probe is used to determine whether or not a human female is ovulating by sensing the state of four body characteristics: basal body temperature; mucous density; pH level; and LH level. As a result of the sensed values, the user is provided with a visual output as to whether or not the received data is indicative of the presence of a viable egg.
The probe disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,238 suffers certain disadvantages in that the cylindrical shape of the probe housing does not lend itself to the positioning of the sensors in close contact with the walls of the user's vagina. As a result, gaps may exist between the user's vaginal tissues and the sensors. This in turn may lead to false sensor readings indicating a user is not ovulating when she may be, or vice versa.
The difficulties associated with the Sundhar probe construction are further compounded if the user's vagina is dry. In such a case, air pockets may exist about the sensors, resulting in poor contact with the sensed vaginal fluids, increasing the likelihood of inaccuracies and misreadings.